Often the biggest obstacle to being successful as a home based business owner is not finding leads and prospects – though that is critical. The biggest obstacle is managing the internal response to the question – NOW WHAT? Often this question is followed by a – deer in the headlights – response which is then followed by stagnation. Following stagnation comes fear, buyers remorse, and the spiral downward can begin.Now what? For home based business owners in the network marketing and direct sales industry, this question is a common one. But is the answer? The product and/or service being offered is great. The compensation plan is in set. The company has a steady track record. The process for finding leads is in place. The marketing tools are already designed and provided. So what is left? Two words – personal development.The internal dialog of the home based business owner is what is left. What you say to yourself becomes paramount. The level of confidence, being self-empowered, understanding internal strengths and weaknesses, and being laser focused on a goal or dream – are often part of the missing links in growing any business. 90% of the challenges for home based business owners are in the lack of personal development. What creates this – lack – or the need to ask, NOW WHAT? It is one thing – STUFF.Now what? Let me define stuff. Stuff is the unspecified, intangible, often negative element we introduce into our minds through our words, thoughts, or some other outside stimulation. When we do not focus our thoughts effectively, they can become scattered, miscellaneous, and fixated on stuff that can lead to negative notions, toxic relationships, and fear of taking even calculated risks.As a new home based business owner (particularly in network marketing) part of your STUFF can be not being able to determine which direction to go with you new business. Not having direction can lead to stagnation and eventually withdrawing from the system in place to assist in your success. Stuff is dwelling on mistakes you have made in the past, being angry at someone who did something to you in the past, being afraid to enter into a new venture because you heard someone share a horror story, worrying about your health at age 50 while you are still 35… and on and on.Stuff will find its way into your life regardless of who you are, how much money you make, and what your status is in life. Stuff keeps us from moving forward with our lives and we need to it let go, and quickly. Especially if you entered in to a new home based business venture to make money. The clock is ticking, and STUFF has no timekeeper.What is the solution? How do you begin letting go of stuff?It begins by making a commitment to yourself, a commitment to your dreams, a commitment to your family, and a having a belief that you deserve to have what you want out of life. That said, please remember the old adage that you do not get in life what you want, you get in life what you are. 100% of your success is centered around your philosophy about what is success. What does success mean to you? What image appears in your minds eye when you imagine being successful? Capture that image in words by writing it down in your personal journal. Make it a part of your business plan and strategy. Read it every day. This will help keep you laser focused on your goals and dreams.Before you take one more step toward working your home based business, you must first identify your philosophy in all areas of your life. What is your philosophy about money, friendship, being a spouse, parent, son/daughter, and business owner? According to the late great Jim Rohn, your philosophy is what determines your internal conversation, which becomes your values, which determines your decisions, and thus drives your actions and direction.Letting go of stuff begins in part with deciding who you want to be, then creating a plan to be that person-no matter what! Making a personal commitment is critical to having success in every area of your life including business, friendships, marriage, and finance.Part of the first step in the process of letting go of stuff is to acknowledge that you have stuff. Acknowledge that you want, and perhaps need to change something. Acceptance of the stuff in your life is also key, just as acceptance of anything you want to change. Before remodeling a home, for example, you must first accept its current condition. After taking inventory, you can then make plans to remodel. The same is true for making long-lasting, inside out changes in your life, and thus your business. You must first take inventory of the stuff that is keeping you from moving forward. Identify it. Accept it. Then begin the process of letting go of it.NOW WHAT? The answer lies inside of you. Begin by letting go of stuff.

If you run an online home-based business and you behave like a mere consumer, then don’t be surprised if all your efforts at growing your business is undermined by this mindset.Businesses make rational buying decisions after careful thought and based on a good feel for how what they are buying fit into their business model.Consumers make decisions based on impulse and what they feel will bring them satisfaction.If you are going to be successful in your online home-based business you have to understand this distinction.How do you adopt the mindset of an online business-person rather than a mere online consumer? Well maybe if you understand the implications, then this will force you to adopt the correct mindset.The implications from behaving as one or the other for your business are huge. And especially so if your business is home-based and run online.Every marketer trying to sell you something online is selling you based on their perception of you as the consumer who will instinctively pick up that tempting chocolate bar at the check-out.Not as a shopper who entered the store with a list of what is required and who is going to buy only what is on that list. And certainly not as an operator of an online home-based business having specific requirements.If you operate with the mindset of the consumer, each of your purchasing decision is most likely going to be driven by the mindset of a mere consumer. Not the mindset of a business person.That is because your online activities are most likely not based on a business model that have specific requirements, but are based on a purely money-making model looking to consume business opportunities presented to you.With this mindset you morph into an online business opportunity consumer, not an online home business operator.It leads to irrational decisions based on whims and driven by sales pitches creating an unhealthy level of anxiety that end up fragmenting your efforts, your time and your financial resources, damaging to your efforts at running a successful online business.These are the ultimate consequences of being an online business opportunity consumer rather than truly being an online business operator. And these consequences are what will eventually cause you to get exhausted and de-motivated only to end up putting your faith in another crazy idea with the same outcome over and over again.You cannot afford to have this mindset if you are going to run a successful online home-based business. So before you even contemplate running this kind of business online, get the correct mindset in place and the underlying resolve that comes from a deep understanding of the consequences of not doing so.Any other approach is just courting failure.

Imagine buying a great property with none of your own cash, funding it with someone else’s money, pulling up to 60% of your profits out in cash on the day you buy, collecting more cash when it’s occupied and then enjoying a predictable and reliable positive cash flow each month. Now imagine doing this… every month! That’s what you can do when you use advanced strategies for raising millions in private money for real estate investing.

The most important factor when you’re looking at getting started raising millions in private money for real estate investing, is to get started right and to get started right now- in that order. No one can MAKE you start raising millions is private money for real estate investing, but at least I can help you put together the plan to get started right by helping you find the money and find the time you already have right now to find it in.

If you’re looking at getting started raising millions in private money to fund your real estate investing, you want to make sure you can find the money and find the time needed to do it right.

Print this article out and honestly complete the 2 exercises for yourself, and you’ll be on your way to doing just that!

First, you want to find the money.

Let’s help you to take stock of your existing financial resources. The answers to these questions will determine exactly what types of real estate investing you want to pursue.

Don’t worry, whether you’re a multimillionaire or middleclass, or even a homeless guy with no job, there are ways to build wealth in real estate-by raising millions in private money to use for your investing. But, before we get to that….Just answer these questions for yourself and you’ll be well on your way to determining the best way for financing your plan.

This first exercise will help you determine what kind of money do you have on hand to invest in real estate. Where will any needed down payment money come from? What kind of financing can you get?

You may even realize one or two sources of cash you can tap that you might not have thought about using (these will be in addition to the strategies I’ll cover in raising millions in PRIVATE MONEY from other folks)

1. Personal Checking Account $__________________
2. Personal Savings Account $__________________
3. Pension/401k Fund (withdraw) $__________________
4. IRAs/Roths (withdraw/borrow) $__________________
5. Stocks/Bonds/Mutual Funds (sell) $__________________
6. Credit Card Total (cash advance) $__________________
7. Home Equity Lines of Credit $__________________
8. Friends & Family (who has money?) $__________________
9. Cash-Accrued Insurance Policy $__________________
10. Other Sources to Raise Capital $__________________

That’s your money and you should use it in addition to or before you worry about raising private money.

Raising private money comes down to building relationships with people who have money. And that takes TIME and trust! I can’t teach you how to build trust in a 1000 word article. But I CAN help you find more time to do these things so that you can start your plan of raising millions in private money to you’re your real estate investing business.

So, secondly, you want to find the time.

Let’s help you to take stock of your existing time usage. The answers to these questions will determine exactly what types of real estate investing you want to pursue and what things you may need to “give up” to implement your plan of raising millions in private money for investing.

Don’t worry, whether you’re a busy entrepreneur or a regular working-man, have a family or just have many time commitments, there are ways to build wealth in real estate.

Just answer these questions for yourself and you’ll be well on your way to finding the time you need for your plan to get started now in real estate investing.

This second exercise will help you determine where your time is going each week, in some cases time spent on things you might possibly could do without- and will help you find time that you could likely be using to learn about and do real estate investments.

You may even realize one or two ways you spend more time than you thought, just by being honest here!

1. Watching television #hrs/wk: ______________________
2. Surfing the web (with no purpose) #hrs/wk: ______________________
3. Reading “fluff” (no educational value) #hrs/wk: ______________________
4. Sleeping more than 7 hours/night #hrs/wk: ______________________
5. Working (primary job/business) #hrs/wk: ______________________
6. Working (second job/profession) #hrs/wk: ______________________
7. Household chores (cooking, laundry etc) #hrs/wk: ______________________
8. Shopping for fun #hrs/wk: ______________________
9. Pursuing hobbies (non-investing) #hrs/wk: ______________________
10. Chatting on the phone/internet #hrs/wk: ______________________

If you’ve completed these simple exercises, congratulations!

Time and money might be the most wished-for things in the world, but few people ever take stock of what they already have (even those who wish for more, like folks who want to raise millions of dollars so they can invest in more real estate).

Whether you found more money than you thought you had, or more time than you realized you could use to invest and learn about investing, you’ve already discovered something powerful about yourself.

You’re a person who goes after what he/she wants.

Now that you have taken stock of your existing financial resources, and existing time usage, you’re ready to get started raising millions in private money for your real estate investing.

You’ll also need to (if you’re not yet investing) need to now determine exactly what types of real estate investing you want to pursue, what techniques you want to use, where and how you want to invest, and what kind of investments make you most excited.

Trust me. If you have found the time and found the money you already have…you’re already half-way there to getting started raising millions in private money for your real estate investing.

Ready for the next step?

It involves showing others how to do the exercise you just did (you DID do the exercise, didn’t you?) to “find their own money” and then GIVING THEM A REASON to give you that money to invest!

I’ve got plenty of other articles on how to do just that and one you should read is titled “How to Find Investor Partners and Private Lenders for Your Real Estate Investing”. You can just search for that phrase right here on the site, or through your favorite search engine. Find that article and read it next for the mechanics of FINDING and building RELATIONSHIPS with folks who can help you in your quest of raising millions in private money for your real estate investing.

In The Other Path, Robert J. Klosterman’s follow-up to The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the author once again offers his astute financial and investment advice. The book’s subtitle, “Illuminating the Path Toward Volatility While Achieving Equity-Type Returns,” is apt, as that is just what Klosterman advocates that investors do to achieve optimal monetary gains with their investment portfolios. Klosterman gets his title from Robert Frost’s famous poem, “The Road Not Taken,” which he quotes at the beginning of The Other Path, a highly interesting book that offers investors insights into a different sort of investment approach than they might be used to, though a very effective one that is designed to aid investors to earn equity-type returns while reducing the volatility that many other investors experience who only try more traditional approaches when it comes to planning their portfolios.

Klosterman’s book, The Other Path, is relatively short, coming in at just 60 pages, not counting the Appendices at the conclusion of it, but his approach to investing which he details in it is one which is very informative. The book is sure to interest and be beneficial to anyone who would like to lower his/her investment risks while maximizing his/her potential monetary returns.

The very title of Klosterman’s book, The Other Path, alludes to an investment strategy, or road, that most people have traditionally followed, which is investing their money entirely in stocks, bonds and cash. Such an approach is a tried-and-true one that has proven beneficial to many investors, but it has also proven to be a sometimes volatile path for others. Investing in stocks, bonds and cash, Klosterman argues, is an important part of an overall investment strategy, though there are other opportunities for diversifying one’s investments and reducing the volatility many portfolios unfortunately undergo, a volatility which can cause the monetary value of one’s portfolio to experience a disastrous nosedive.

Still, the main leg of the milk stool, that is, investing in stocks, bonds and cash, is a vital component in a wise investment strategy, according to Klosterman’s assessment in The Other Path. He calls it the core leg of a metaphorical three-legged milk stool, with each leg in the metaphor referring to a different but complimentary strategy when it comes to investing. If an investor diversifies his/her portfolio and does not solely focus on the main leg of stocks, bonds and cash, but also invests his/her money in nontraditional ways, Klosterman argues, using a series of useful and informative charts and graphs, that one’s portfolio is much less liable to experience a disastrous financial loss and the volatility of one’s portfolio will be reduced.

The second of the three legs of the milk stool is “Diversifiers,” and the third leg is “Absolute Returns.” Klosterman argues that “Diversifiers,” or alternative or nontraditional Investments, help reduce the volatility of an overall investment portfolio. Some examples that the author gives of nontraditional investments include real estate, private equity, “developed and emerging international equities,” distressed debt, and managed futures. These sorts of nontraditional investments can reduce volatility by either having a “very low correlation with traditional markets,” as Klosterman writes, or by delivering “consistent returns year after year, with little or no volatility.”

The third leg of the milk stool, “Absolute Returns,” is also the name of Chapter Four of The Other Path. Absolute returns are investments, according to Klosterman, which “demonstrate the same qualities of a bond with the assurance of return of principle and consistent payment of interest.” The author writes that they are similar to ten-year treasury bonds but “they are not backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.” Despite this, Klosterman states that aspect of absolute return vehicles can be considered to be an advantage. That is because strategies involving absolute return vehicles, as the author writes, “can invest in sound ideas and not have to fit restrictions that other institutions have.”

One example is investing in companies that lend money to small businesses and house flippers. These companies can work fast and close loans faster than banks. These companies have the ability to provide quick access to loans for money to people like real estate developers or house flippers, in comparison to banks.

In The Other Path, author Robert J. Klosterman writes about a no-nonsense approach to nontraditional investing and how it can benefit one’s investment portfolio and help reduce volatility. The book also examines and identifies “trouble signs” besides volatility when planning one’s portfolio, like groupthink, market disruptions and inflation. While Klosterman recommends that investors follow the advice of professionals who are experts in planning investment portfolios and have proven track records over at least a decade, The Other Path is an interesting and insightful look at adding nontraditional investments to an individual’s portfolio. Whether investors want and like to plan their investment strategies on their own, or with the advice of professionals, The Other Path is an eye-opening Must Read designed to inform investors of types of alternative investments that can balance out their portfolios and reduce the negative effects of market volatility. It is a book I would highly recommend to anyone who has ever considered expanding their investment portfolios and adding nontraditional investments to them.